There are various devices for handling of wafers and as a result of wafers which are becoming thinner and thinner as well as of the simultaneously increasing diameters of wafers of up to 450 mm, handling devices for wafers are becoming more and more important, especially when the wafers are provided with expensive structures.
For fixing of wafers, mechanical methods are known in which the mechanical stress on the wafer, especially at the pressure point of mechanical clamps, also constitutes a major technical problem at the same time.
Fixing of wafers by means of chemical methods such as cementing or by adhesion leads to often very strong adhesion between the sample holder or carrier wafer and the wafer. The connections which have been produced in this way in general must be chemically dissolved; this is an environmentally harmful and tedious process.
The fixing of wafers by means of electrostatic charging leads to partially unwanted discharging of the carrier and/or of the wafer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,944 discloses a handling device for semiconductor chips 12 in which a textile fabric 16 on a carrier 10 is covered by a flexible cover 18 to which a chip 12 can adhere. The adhesion force can be reduced by applying a vacuum on the contact surface between the flexible film 18.